This Augusta-area product helps UGA Lady Dogs basketball ahead of NCAA Tournament

In the Augusta basketball scene, the name Metress invokes thoughts of Peach Belt Conference banners and the occasional jaguar-print suit.

Minds tend to jump straight to Dip, who’s in his 18th season leading the Augusta University men’s basketball program. Just 78 miles up the road in Athens, however, there’s another Metress making her mark on the basketball court.

Elizabeth Metress is in her second season as a graduate assistant for the University of Georgia women’s basketball program and she’s quickly proved to be a chip off the old block, even while forging a path slightly different than that of her father.

As sixth-seed Georgia (20-9) prepares to travel to the Greensboro region for the NCAA Tournament this week, coach Joni Taylor laid out what Metress has meant to the program since she came on as a freshman.

“She has been invaluable to us. She is someone who will do whatever is asked and is ready when her name is called. Earlier this year, we weren’t able to travel with some staff because of health and safety protocols, so she had to take on a different role. She did it tremendously. She didn’t flinch," she said.

"She was ready to go because any meeting we’re having, whether it’s something she has anything to do with or not, she asked to sit in. We’re having a recruiting meeting and she asks to sit in and listen. If I’m meeting with one of my assistants about the next scout, she asks to sit in and listen. If we’re talking about camp, she asks to sit in and listen. She’s a willing learner and eager to soak up as much as she can and she’s done that.”

Metress graduated from Grovetown High School in 2017, where she lettered in basketball, softball and tennis. She knew long before she set foot on a college campus she wanted to be involved with basketball in some capacity, but she didn't know what that would look like. That was until she and her dad visited Stegeman Coliseum to see the Lady Dawgs take on Vandy.

“It was something I definitely wanted to do," she said. "When I realized around my senior year that I wasn’t going to pursue playing in college, I wanted to go somewhere with a high level of academics but I also knew I couldn’t be away from basketball.”

That visit led to a conversation with then director of player personnel Jon Bollier, who has since moved on to become an assistant at Samford. Next thing she knew, she found herself on campus as a freshman student manager.

“He said, ‘Just let me know when you get here and we’ll get you set up.’ I would call it an interview, but he just wanted to meet me. I was on a trial basis the first couple months I was here, just because they usually don’t really take freshmen. It’s a hard thing to do, coming into college and this is a very time-consuming thing," she said.

“I was up here right when I started. First week of school I met Jon and began helping out with workouts once the paperwork passed through. I’ve been here ever since and I spend more time here than I do anywhere else. I wouldn’t trade it, because it was something I knew I wanted to do.”

Making the transition from high school to college can be a tall task even for those who are just focusing on academics. Tack on a job in athletics on top of a full-time class schedule, while being away from home for the first time, can become overwhelming to even the most organized students. Not to mention those first-year students are still trying to meet new people and find their place on a vast campus.

For Metress, that place was the basketball court and she credits the team for making that transition much smoother.

“There aren’t many of us managers. When I first got here I think there were five others, so six total. From day one they accepted me," she said. "I also built a unique relationship with some of the players, because I realized like, ‘Hey, you’re in my class.’ I had always been around a team my whole life and it gave me a structure. When you first go off to college you have a lot of free time and having this basketball component and it definitely did help.”

As she neared graduation in 2020, she began contemplating her next step. A conversation with outgoing grad assistant Bryce Dillard led to what Metress called a 'shot in the dark' email to Taylor, inquiring about the position.

“It was maybe a five-minute conversation and the decision was made," Metress said. "I was going to be on the next team meeting and they announced that I was going to become the graduate assistant in August and when I graduated in December I became the full-time grad assistant.”

It quickly became evident why Taylor was eager to hold onto Metress after graduation.

"It’s actually the second time we’ve (brought a student manager into a GA role). Before Liz, Bryce Dillard was a student manager for us and then we elevated him to grad assistant for two years. He’s the son of a coach — his mom is a coach. Liz is the daughter of a coach — her dad is a college coach," she said. "You can tell. It jumps off the page. They understand it, they get it. They understand the grind. They want to be coaches and they’ve lived that life and know what it looks like.”

Metress was honest about being nervous in the early stages of her relationship with Taylor, but it all comes from a deep desire to succeed.

“I used to be scared of her. It wasn’t because she was mean or anything like that, but she’s just such a great person that you don’t want to ever let down. You’re a little intimidated by that and when I came here I had watched her and Mackenzie Engram and Caliya Robinson on TV, so when I got here I was a little star struck," Metress said. "As the years have progressed, I think once I became the GA I got a lot more comfortable with her and have had more one-on-one conversations. I’ve always trusted her, but it’s a different type of trust when you’re around her every day.”

As one could've probably imagined, spending so much time at the gym with her father went a long way to prepare her for this life. It's also allowed her to grasp the bigger picture of what she's doing for the Georgia program.

“I was going from school, to practice, to his games, to driving home and doing homework. I also knew the pressure he was under. I had the fortunate experience to spend a lot of time with my dad," she said. "With my mom working, there would be days where I’d be with him all day after school, so I know it’s not just two hours of your day. Now that I’m in a graduate assistant role, this is full-time thing you dedicate yourself to and seeing that in both my parents definitely helped me here.”

Even in her free time, she's back in the gym. Metress was in town to watch her dad's team defeat Belmont Abbey in the opener of the NCAA Division-II Southeast Regional Saturday.

Metress is set to graduate in May and she's looking to stay on the court and keep the dream of coaching alive.

“Sometimes you get around it and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a lot.’ I think it was the opposite for me," she said. "It’s something I want to do more and more. I couldn’t imagine my life being different than the last five years, so I want to continue that. I have faith it’ll work out. I probably shouldn’t have even gotten this GA spot, but here I was and it worked out.”

Taylor has a message for anyone looking to add her to their staff.

“Whoever hires her after she leaves here," she said, "is going to be extremely fortunate."

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Elizabeth Metress a valuable asset to UGA women's basketball